ABSTRACT
In a group of twenty-two Igbo communities in southeastern Nigeria called Afikpo, children's learning in past times was largely through emulation of adult behavior. Training in gender distinctions in childhood occurred through the boys' masquerades, as well as in other ways. There were three levels of boys' societies in the larger Afikpo communities, while in the smaller settlements the boys were grouped into one or two. During the ritual period of the year at Afikpo, boys spent little time at the compound ancestral house or in their male quarters in the compound. Wood, used in many adult society masks, was not permitted in the boys' masks, by a standing rule of the men of Afikpo. Sometimes the boys' masks were of styles that indicated that they came from outside of Afikpo. The boys' play was said by some Afikpo to have been better produced at times then that of the men.
